


Eternal Stream

by phantomthief_fee



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe, Memory Loss, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24413113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: Two humans get trapped in a video game after both using a cursed computer. They're not the same people when they get out
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35
Collections: Eternal Stream HLVRAI AU





	Eternal Stream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyLampblack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLampblack/gifts), [Liliflower137](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliflower137/gifts).



So, [@lady-lampblack](https://tmblr.co/mQRjvvwi-6VdzJ6PCL490gA) came up with a HLVRAI AU too, and me, her, and [@liliflower137](https://tmblr.co/m6IUUxKDNGCvV8dmwLG96Vg) talked about it a lot and I wanted to write some stuff.

* * *

Chester Wayne Mallory had never expected to go far in life. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had dreams, of course he had. It was just that as he’d gotten older…things had happened. Specifically depression. So, he’d ended up dropping out of college, working at 7/11, and just…coasting in life, the only joy in his existence coming from video games.

That had been before, though. Before he’d gotten stuck in a video game for nearly a week and gotten irrevocably changed by his experience. Before he’d lost an arm and gained a strange new roommate.

He supposed it had all started with the computer. That damned computer. He’d gotten it secondhand. It had been in pretty good condition and he’d needed a new computer, so he’d bought it. He wasn’t sure in retrospect whether that had been a good decision or not. On one hand, he’d freed another soul trapped within it, but on the other hand it had taken **him** being trapped in there to do so.

But that didn’t change the past. He’d bought the computer and had taken it home. He’d transferred the data for the AI’s he’d been working on onto the computer and got back to work. He’d been building them because he himself was incredibly lonely and wanted some friends. 

He knew how pathetic it was to be building friends when he could just go out and **make** friends. That didn’t change the fact that he’d done it, though. He’d made the AI’s and set them up in a VR port of Half Life (one of his favorite games) and then he’d decided to stream it.

As far as the subscribers of his stream had known, he’d just set up the Half Life VR port to show off the AI’s he’d created. Definitely not as a reason to hang out with the AI’s he’d created. Nope. That hadn’t been it at all. 

But things had gone wrong. 

Things had gone wrong and he’d gotten stuck in the game while he’d been streaming. He still wasn’t sure **how** it had happened, but it had happened. That had been how he’d discovered that “Benrey” was not, in fact, one of the four AI’s he’d created, but another human who’d become trapped in the computer. 

Because of course the fucking computer was cursed. Of course. 

In any case, Chester had ended up stuck in that game for nearly a week before he and the others had managed to escape, the stream running the entire time. 

During that time he’d become….Well, he’d sort of partially turned into Gordon Freeman. Physically he’d definitely turned into Gordon, but he could deal with that. He’d gotten used to Gordon’s body. Sure, it was weird to suddenly be build like a brick shithouse, and to not have a right arm, but he’d gotten used to it during his time in the game. It was even sort of an improvement. Chester had never considered himself attractive before. He’d been a lonely nerd, with nothing to write home about in terms of appearance. Gordon was a buff protagonist. So much better than the bland Chester. 

But that wasn’t a problem.

The problem was that some of his memories had been replaced every time he’d died. Little pieces of his identity had been erased and replaced by the character he had been playing. He acted differently now, more like Gordon. He had a strange hero complex that had developed from becoming more of the character.

Evidently, that had been what had happened to Benrey. During his time in the computer, Benrey had lost all his memories. While Chester had had a character to play, Benrey hadn’t. So everyone time he’d died he’d just…lost himself. He didn’t remember the person he’d once been. 

When the game had ended, and Chester and Benrey had been freed, Benrey had woken up from his coma in the hospital with no connection or memory to the person he’d once been. He wasn’t Branden Hansen. Not anymore. 

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Benrey and Chester had ended up living together afterwards. Neither of them were the same people they’d been before and they took comfort in their shared understanding of each other’s pain.

Things weren’t perfect, but both Chester and Benrey were a lot happier now than they’d been before. Chester had even decided to go back to college. He had some memories of being a physicist thanks to the memories he’d gained from parts of Gordon replacing him so he might as well take advantage of it. Even if the fact that it had happened freaked him out. 

Benrey, being a bit of a blank slate who didn’t remember anything about his life, took up speedrunning games. Which he was shockingly good at. Chester had sat down to watch him speedrun a few times and had been absolutely blown away by the other man’s proficiency.

However, there were problems that came with living with another person. They got on each other’s nerves quite a lot.

“Goddammit! Did you eat my snacks again?!” Chester demanded, storming into the living room. 

Benrey didn’t even look up from the stream he was doing. He was speedrunning the original Metroid again to try and beat his previous time. 

“I live here too, so they’re my snacks too,” he replied. 

“I put my name on them!” Chester waved the empty chip bag, pointing at his initials written in permanent marker on the front. 

Benrey fell silent and Chester could tell from the way his posture shifted that he did feel a bit bad about it. That didn’t mean Chester wasn’t going to let him off, though.

“If you keep eating my snacks, I’m putting them on the top shelf,” Chester said, a smirk spreading across his features.

Immediately, Benrey paused his game and looked back at Chester with horror and rage in his eyes. 

“You wouldn’t dare,” he whispered. 

“I would.” Chester’s smirk widened. 

Upon getting out of the game, both Chester and Benrey had discovered that the body of Branden Hansen was short. Benrey was not happy about this, especially since Chester’s physical transformation had left him a bit taller than he’d previously been. 

Benrey narrowed his eyes. “You’re a monster, Donny. A monster.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a monster who’s going to protect his snacks.” Chester folded his arms.

Benrey huffed, turning back to his game. Chester couldn’t help but smile a little. Benrey made it far too easy to push his buttons. Then again, though, he certainly gave as good as he got. He knew exactly how to push Chester’s buttons right back.

“Hey, the chat’s asking if you’re gonna stream the Science Team in Sims anytime soon,” Benrey remarked as Chester started to leave. 

Chester lit up, scrambling over to get into view of the web cam on the computer. He nearly fell over the couch in doing so. Benrey scooted over so Chester could take center stage. 

“Okay. So. I’ve been doing a lot of work with them,” he said. “Especially with Tommy and some of his science experiments. And I’m making a lot of progress too!” 

Benrey watched as Chester chattered on, a gentle smile on his face. Chester may have changed quite a bit, but he was still the giant dork he’d always been.

**Author's Note:**

> So, most of this is outdated and wrong since we've done a lot of work on the AU since. This is a very early version


End file.
